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EU countries hope to pass a deal on new renewable energy targets on Wednesday and are considering options including an exemption for certain ammonia plants in a bid to win over countries skeptical of the final law, diplomatic sources said.
The European Union is trying to finalize a key pillar of its climate agenda. If approved by EU countries and lawmakers, the renewable energy law will enshrine a binding target for the EU to obtain 42.5% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030.
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Countries' approval of the law was delayed for weeks after belated opposition from France and other countries seeking more favorable treatment of nuclear energy in the bill. Nuclear energy is low carbon but non-renewable.
The group of states, many of them in Eastern Europe and with interests in nuclear energy, also raised concerns about the fate of ammonia produced from hydrogen under the rules.
Sweden, which holds the EU's rotating presidency and presides over negotiations between EU countries, put the law back on the agenda of a meeting of EU countries' ambassadors on Wednesday – signaling confidence that it now has enough support to be approved.
Diplomatic sources said some countries' positions were unclear. Slovakia was expected to abandon its previous opposition and support the final version, which would provide a large enough majority for the law to pass. “We can confirm that the discussion is ongoing and there are some movements. Of course, it is in everyone's interest to move this forward, as we need the agreement. A landing zone could be a recital on ammonia, which would help us move,” said a Slovak official.
The ammonia preamble to the law could provide a limited loophole for hydrogen derived from non-renewable sources in calculating countries' renewable fuel targets, a draft showed. “Some specific integrated ammonia production facilities may require major industrial retrofitting to consume larger portions of hydrogen produced by electrolysis,” the draft said.
Hydrogen produced at these facilities could be excluded from the baseline used to calculate countries' targets for using renewable fuels, it said, adding that these ammonia production plants must have plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035.
Source: agrolink
